gloat
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb
noun
Synonym Usage
See glare 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have gloatedperfect
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has gloatedperfect 3rd person singular
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has been gloatingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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is gloatingprogressive 3rd person singular
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am gloatingprogressive 1st person singular
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have been gloatingperfect progressive
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are gloatingprogressive
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gloatssingular 3rd person
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gloatingparticiple
Past
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had gloatedperfect
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was gloatingprogressive singular
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were gloatingprogressive plural
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gloatedsimple
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had been gloatingperfect progressive
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gloatedparticiple
Future
Etymology
Origin of gloat
1565–75; perhaps akin to Old Norse glotta “to smile scornfully”; compare German glotzen “to stare”
Explanation
If you gloat, you express great satisfaction at the misfortune of others. If your team scores a big win, it would be better not to gloat. Be happy for your win, but don't laugh at the other team's loss. Gloat seems have come from a Germanic word meaning "to stare." Somehow people may have gotten the sense that whoever was doing the staring was also taking a deep and unwholesome pleasure in whatever he or she was seeing. Think about people staring and pointing and laughing. Sometimes you gloat when someone has rejected the help you have offered. If your little sister won't listen to your advice on how to improve her essay and then comes home with a bad grade, it will be very hard not to gloat and say "I told you so."
Vocabulary lists containing gloat
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
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"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Gloat, gloat, gloat, went the journalists as they left the Europa Hotel clutching their plain-wrapped copies,” Ian Breach wrote.
From The Guardian • Dec. 2, 2015
Gloat, glōt, v.i. to look eagerly, in a bad sense: to view with a wicked joy.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
F. Gloat or no gloat, is it true or no?
From Canterbury Pieces by Butler, Samuel
See now a jackal move about his gate, Gloat o'er his grief, and mock his fallen State— Howl round his nobler prisoner every hour, How brave! to mock him now, deprived of power!
From Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems by Bartley, James Avis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
